10.5 upgrade

[thewvsignguy]

I upgraded from 10.0 to 10.5 yesterday. Not sure what happened what I shut the computer down last night but the computer would not boot up this morning. Got windows XP Pro reinstalled and flexi 10.0 reinstalled, then I reinstalled 10.5. Now when Itry to open either version I get the error message below. I called tech support and left a message but does any one have ideas I can try?

Bobby, I copied the profiles but don't know if it worked because flexi or productin manager will not open.

 

[choucove]

After reinstalling Windows and Flexi, the driver for the USB dongle must not have gotten reinstalled properly. Normally on the installation disk or executable there is an option to also install the USB Sentinel driver, this is most likely what you need to fix the issue.

 

[thewvsignguy]

I uninstalled flexi again and started from scratch, and it's a no go. I'm still having the same issue. After wasting 6 hours on this today I'm going to wipe the hdd Monday and start from there.

The odd thing is with the dongle is it never prompted to reinstall itself or to plug it back in when flexi told me to remove it while flexi installing. I had to go into a totally different folder to find the drivers for it to install itself, XP saw that something was there but the dongle did not "PNP".

When installing 10.5 where does it ask you about the dongle? I installed flexi 5 time today and do not recall seeing it pop up.

 

[Drip Dry]

I thought Ver 10 was running on a software password only. Do you really have
a dongle. Or is it from an earlier version.

 

[choucove]

All of our systems running version 10 have USB dongles as well.

We have had this issue before with Flexi and every time it has been related to the USB dongle driver in some form, the difficult part is trying to figure out the right combination of installing things, plugging in the dongle, and starting up Flexi to make it recognize properly the first time in Windows XP.

Wiping the hard drive will do you no good unfortunately, if you've already reinstalled Windows XP then wiping the drive will make no difference the second time around. If the driver on the disk is not working, I'd suggest looking online to find the latest driver for download, I've also had to do this before.

http://www.safenet-inc.com/support-downloads/sentinel-drivers/#

I would suggest uninstalling Flexi and then completely remove the USB dongle from the computer. Next, install Flexi completely, followed by the USB driver directly from the website. Do not install the USB dongle yet! Restart the computer after installing the driver, and then plug in the USB dongle after Windows has completely loaded. Wait a moment, watch, and listen. Windows may play a sound which is stating that it is recognizing and installing a new hardware device. It may even prompt you with a window to Add New Hardware, which you can select to use all the default settings, or it may just ask you to restart the computer again to complete the installation of new hardware. Either way, restart your computer once more with the USB dongle now plugged in and then you should be alright to open Flexi.

 

[thewvsignguy]

Thanks, I'll update the situation on Monday.

The file that I downloaded for 10.5 asks for a password that I copy and paste based on my 6 digit user code I used for 10.0. Maybe the one I was using was for 10 and not 10.5, either way I'll try what you suggested.

 

[choucove]

That's probably what is also causing issues. Yes, you have to get an updated key going from 10.0.X to 10.5.X, so if you had the wrong serial key that would cause it to also display that error message.

 

[bob]

Perhaps you might entertain the notion of calling the the authors...

...Whoops, that would be SAI, the home of no support. SAI is the biggest problem with Flexi.

It seems a shame that people have to depend on forums and friends for support of a product for which, because it's a niche product, they paid far more than it's actually worth and have to tolerate things like 6 character user ids, 32 character passwords, and, gag, a hasp key, and worst of all, the usually unhelpful company selling this product.

 

[choucove]

The fact of the matter is USB (or similar and sometimes even proprietary) HASP hardware keys are used quite commonly in a whole range of products, it's not just old or "poorly run" software companies that use it. We worked recently on some medical imaging computers and all of them required HASP keys for the specialized 3D imaging software and hardware. Juggling different passwords is also quite common going from upgrade to upgrade, though it is probably one of the more confusing thing to keep in order when you have numerous copies, versions, and generations of the Flexi software to keep track of.

 

[bob]

The fact of the matter is USB (or similar and sometimes even proprietary) HASP hardware keys are used quite commonly in a whole range of products, it's not just old or "poorly run" software companies that use it. We worked recently on some medical imaging computers and all of them required HASP keys for the specialized 3D imaging software and hardware. Juggling different passwords is also quite common going from upgrade to upgrade, though it is probably one of the more confusing thing to keep in order when you have numerous copies, versions, and generations of the Flexi software to keep track of.

If 50,000,000 people do a stupid thing, it's still a stupid thing.

Merely because this level of paranoia is common, especially in smaller niche providers, does not make it necessarily acceptable. Likewise, making a system incredibly hard to use does not necessarily provide some sort of protection against those from whom you want to protect yourself. Making it worse, after you subject yourself to their draconian protections [protecting them, not you], they seem unable or unwilling to support their products.

Having been in the development side of software business damn near as long as I've been in the sign business, I'm not without some insight in these matters. I grow weary of having to alter my behavior to accommodate someone else's paranoia.

 

[choucove]

Now I definitely do agree with you that taking on certain practices in their development is no excuse for providing means to only protect themselves at the direct hindrance of their customer's support of software stability/compatibility. Nor should they be offering sub-standard support to customers who rely heavily on their (incredibly expensive) software. Granted, I've seen many other software services out there with worse customer support, unfortunately SAi has a reputation of being some of the worse out there. This is the nature of niche software, but it's no excuse especially again given the cost of the software that their loyal customers are forced to dole out.

Many times customer service is a sign of a business' core ethics and values. When a company is willing to take a ton of your money but not willing to go the extra mile to help out their loyal customers, it's a reflection of how their company is run most will perceive. Likewise, a company that offers immediate, helpful, and understanding service will be seen as such as a company in whole and will retain their customers and increase their value.

That being said, in the past I have been able to get help from SAi on a number of occasions, though yes it can take a little time and work sometimes to get a hold of the right person to help. The best thing I can suggest if you have questions is to first contact your Flexi reseller as they often have a good connection with the right people at SAi to get your answers.

 

[ProWraps]

ruh roh. another thread bombed by bob.

something is wrong with your key obviously, be it soft or hard. hehehe.

SAI does have tech support. they may not be available on weekends and/or sometimes you have to leave a message but if you are presistant you will get help.

i have found as it may be a pain in the *** to finally speak to someone, the support they offer has always fixed my problem/s.

they do know their product, especially when it comes to key/upgrade issuses as i can attest to.

i have gone through several soft key upgrades and transition into a hard key/dongle. i also run the hp's which require and additional key and they have helped through the entire process if i have had troubles.

 

[Charlie J]

Apparently I'm special, but I've never had a problem with SAi tech support. I've only had to call a few times and they do a remote session and are usually pretty helpful.

 

[thewvsignguy]

SAI will not offer support because I got the software through SW with a bundled package. The support from SW was very vague and was told to reinstall in software and that will fix the problem.

working on reinstalling flexi now, will update asap.

 

[thewvsignguy]

reinstalled 10.5 and it used the hasp driver 7.6.4. Tried to open flexi and I'm getting the same error message as my first post.

choucove, I tried instal the new hasp driver 7.6.5 and it gave me the error as in the pic. I tried to uninstall the 7.6.4 and it will not uninstall either.

I called SW again so I can get to the bottom of this.

 

[SignBurst PCs]

Did you get a new user id / password with the 10.5 upgrade? If I remember correctly, the 10.5 upgrades use a different key. If you want to give me a call, I can try and help you out.

 

[thewvsignguy]

hey Casey,

I did get a new PW but no new user ID. I'm using the same User ID I have in 10.0 to get 10.5.

 

[Graphics2u]

Did you get a new user id / password with the 10.5 upgrade? If I remember correctly, the 10.5 upgrades use a different key. If you want to give me a call, I can try and help you out.

I upgraded from 8.6 to 10.5 using the same USB key.

 

[Graphics2u]

thewvsignguy - When you plug in the USB key does windows recognize it? Should play a sound and give a popup in the corner of screen. Have you checked in Control Panel/Device manager to see if the driver is installed. I'm running XP and flexi 10.5 and I notice the Driver version is older than yours. Maybe that's the problem.

 

[Graphics2u]

One more possibility is that maybe with the fresh install of XP you will need to run all the XP updates for it??? Don't know for sure but maybe?